Travel to Northern India: Vrindaban: Govind Deo Temple

In the town Vrindaban (formerly Brindaban), which is along the Yamuna River upstream from Agra, Man Singh of Amber (Jaipur) built a remarkable temple to Govind Deo, the divine cowherd and an avatar of Krishna. Man Singh was a contemporary of the Emperor Akbar, and the shape of the building echoes Akbar's own works at the same time as it celebrates an utterly different tradition.

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Travel to Northern India: Vrindaban: Govind Deo Temple

Govind Deo

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Front view. The temple was either left unfinished or was partly destroyed by order of Auranzeb. There may, or may not, have been a tower.

We're walked around this afternoon to the west side. Here's Fergusson, still surprisingly serviceable a century after the publication of his History of Indian and Eastern Architecture: "It is, however, the combination of vertical with horizontal lines, covering the whole surface, that forms the great merit of the design. This is, indeed, not peculiar to this temple; but at Bhuvaneswar, Halebid, and elsewhere, the whole surface is so overloaded with ornament as to verge on bad taste."

Balcony on the south facade.

Almost a joke, that trace of figurative decoration.

The shrine may be a make-do adaptation, if as many think the temple was supposed to continue farther west.

The striking thing about the temple is its cruciform vaulting, which forms what amounts to a nave extending to an altar. Vaulting in Hindu temples is almost unknown, and Fergusson called this exception "internally nearly quite perfect."

The crossing. Fergusson again: "Over the four arms of the cross the vault is plain, and of 23 1/2 ft. span, but in the centre it expands to 35 ft., and is quite equal in design to the best Gothic vaulting known."

Lintel over the shrine; the monkey is one of many that can be a nuisance.

Aisle pillars.

Compare this with the very similar work done for Akbar at about the same time at Fatehpur Sikri.

The context you'd rather not see; buildings immediately south of the temple.